[bad word] THROUGH" - CHINESE POEM SONG (by Jack Kerouac)

O, I today

sad as Chu Yuan

stumbled to the store

in broiling Florida October

morning heat cursing

for my wine, sweating

like rain, & came to my chair

weak & trembling

wondering if I'm crazy at last

-- O, Chu Yuan!  No!

No suicide!  Wine, please, wine!

What shall we all do, 

all knowing we're dying

without wine to guide us

to winking at death

& life too -- 

my heart belongs

to Chinese poets

& their scrolls --

we can't just die

-- men need wine

& poetry

at least

 

O Mao,

poet Mao, not Boss Mao,

here in America

wine is laughed at

& poetry a joke

-- Death's a grim reminder

to everybody already dead

crashing in cars all around here --

here men and women dryly scowl

at poets' sad attempts

to make our lot

a whole lot

lesser -- 

I, a poet, suffer

even for bugs

I find upside down

dying in the grass -- 

so I drink wine

alone -- 

I shudder to think

how dead

the astronauts

are going to a dead

moon

of no wine

 

All our best men

are laughed at

in this nightmare land

but the newspapers preen

in virtue --

throughout

the world the left & right,

the east & west, are both vicious --

the happy old winebibber is gone --

I want him to reappear --

for modern China preens

in virtue too

for no better reason

than America --

nobody has respect for the cat

asleep, and I am hopelessly

inadequate in this poem --

nobody has respect

for the self centered

irresponsible wine invalid --

everybody wants to be strapped

in a hopeless space suit

where they cant move --

I urge you, China,go back

to Li Po &Tao Yuan Ming

 

What am I talking about?

I don’t know,

I'm sick today --

I didn’t sleep all night,

walked stumbling in the field

to get wine, now I'm drinking it,

I feel better and worse --

I have something to say to Mao

& the poets of China

that [bad word] out --

it's all about how America 

ignored poetry & wine,

& so does China,

& I'm a fool

without a river & a boat

& a flower suit --

without a wineshop at dawn --

-- without self-respect --

--

-- without the [bad word] --

but I'm a better man

than all of you --

that's what I 

wanted to say